Text billing practices dubious, says teens' father

A Riverview man is calling for protection from certain cellphone charging practices after finding out his children had racked up hundreds of dollars in texting fees without knowing it.

When Dan McLaughlin's 18-year-old son Scott, opened his Facebook account, he said he did what all of his buddies do.

"I put my phone number on Facebook because everyone else does it," he said.

He said he never realized that Facebook advertisers now had a direct link to his cellphone.

'There should be some kind of protection out there because it's just too easy to get tripped up.' —Dan McLaughlin

McLaughlin, said he was shocked when he saw Scott's most recent cellphone bill.

"Almost $400 was billed in a period of 45 minutes," he said.

McLaughlin's daughter also had extra charges on her bill. In total, she accumulated $600 in additional charges for the month of February.

"The bill doesn't really specify the charges, so we contacted Koodo," said McLaughlin.

He said he was told the charges were for premium text messaging.

'Questionable' practices

Scott had clicked on several ads and unknowingly agreed to the charges, which were billed by a third-party company called Boku.

"If you click on an ad they are going to ask you for some personal information and from the personal information they include your cellphone number and once they have that they start sending you text messages," said McLaughlin.

Scott received about 12 such messages. When he opened them, he was charged almost $40 each.

McLaughlin said he's fighting the bill because his son had no idea what he was signing up for when he clicked the ads on Facebook.

"I think there should be some kind of protection out there because it's just too easy to get tripped up," said McLaughlin.

Jonathan Bishop, research analyst with the Public Interest Advocacy Centre in Ottawa, said the Competition Bureau of Canada has taken an active interest in this area.

"They have taken the step of formally introducing a motion in Ontario Superior Court against Bell, TELUS, Rogers and the Canadian Telecommunications Association saying at least that some of these practices that they are employing — that texting providers are employing — is questionable and perhaps those providers and the wireless association that represents them is somehow responsible," said Bishop.

Until that battle is settled in court, McLaughlin can file a formal complaint with the Canadian Wireless Telecommunication Association.

He said it might come to that if he can't get the charges reversed through Facebook.

Meanwhile, Scott said he's learned his lesson.

"I have taken it down for about a week now and I haven't gotten anything else on my phone," he said.